South River Incident (14 page)

“I guess that all depends
on where we stand.”

He put the truck in park,
left it still running, and turned to face me.

I looked into his dark
eyes, remembering the first time I had stared into them. He had beautiful eyes;
the kind that could win over the coldest of hearts. I was attracted to him
then, but had spent all this time ignoring my feelings. What an idiot I had
been... or maybe not. Maybe I was destined to travel a long, bumpy road before
true love came my way. Now was my chance to have what I had always longed for—a
man who truly loved me. I would be a fool to let this one pass me by. I had
butterflies in my stomach when I asked, “Is this just a fling or is this for
real? Are you going to break my heart?”

“It’s as real as you want
it to be. Before you say anything, I want you to know that I don’t know how to
just live with a woman, and I don’t want to. If we go down this road, I want a
commitment.”

You could have knocked me
over with a feather. I was breathless.

“Billy Blackhawk, are you
asking me to marry
you?”

“Not yet
,
” he said.
“But when I do, I’ll do it proper. I want you to know that if we go through
that door tonight with the intention of becoming lovers, I plan on marrying
you. Do your feelings for me fit into my scenario or have I taken a wrong turn
somewhere?”

“No, you’re on the right
path. Leave the truck parked here.”

“Are you scared?”

“Yes, I am. Aren’t you?”

“No, I’m not scared, I’m
thrilled. I just can’t imagine what took us so long to get to this point.”

“I had a bit of growing up
to do.”

“That’s true.”

“What do you mean?”

“What’s that old saying
about kissing a few frogs?”

“Yeah... yeah... yeah.
Let’s get home before you bore me to death with your goofy talk about animals
and how they relate to my love life.”

“I was just trying to make
a point about...”

“You just wanted me to
admit to you that you are my prince. Okay, I admit it. It took me a long time
to find someone like you. You make me happy. I like being with you. Are you
satisfied?”

“Almost.”

B
illy and I sat
cuddled
together on the couch in front of the fireplace, sipping hot chocolate. Athena
and Thor rested on the floor next to us. Time seemed to stand still as we
talked late into the night. He knew exactly what he wanted out of this
relationship. I was still in shock about his earlier proposal.

“It was love at first
sight,” he said.

“What was?”

“How I felt about you the
day we met. Why else would I hire a scrawny `ge ya who lied to me right off the
bat, and didn’t know the first thing about the job? Come on, you had to know.
Didn’t you see my eyes light up when you walked into the office?”

“I just figured you were a
dirty old man,” I snickered. “I was sure you were a serial killer.”

“What am I going to do with
you?” He kissed me gently on the lips. “I do have one little problem that scares
me.”

“And what’s that?”

“After all these months of
dating Cole, you dropped him without a second thought. It was as if you just
flipped a switch and the light went out. He was no longer in the picture. How
can you do that?”

“It wasn’t easy, Billy. I
realize that I can’t trust him. When he said he couldn’t be involved with me
because of the investigation, I was really angry. It made me think about the
other times I felt let down by him. Then I thought about what you said about
him being married to his job.”

“I didn’t say he was
married to his job. I said…”

“It doesn’t matter what
words you used, the point is, his job comes first. To me that was the final
blow. I have to be important in a relationship or there’s no relationship.
Unfortunately, I think our hot affair was over before it ever got started, but
I was too blind to see.”

I changed the subject.
“What are we going to do about our little problem with the police? You know
it’s not over.”

“We’re going to wait and
see what they do next. In the meantime we’ll follow up on the case. I’m going
to keep on trying to trace down that e-mail address, and then we’ll play it by
ear. I think we ought to talk to everyone in that photo. Somebody has to know
something, and we’ll dig until we find out what it is. I’m willing to bet the
person who sent that message is in that picture.”

“What makes you think
that?”

“I don’t know, just a
feeling I have.” He yawned.

“Maybe it’s time we went to
bed.” I ran my fingers through his hair.  “You look tired.”

“I am,” he responded. “We
have a big day ahead of us tomorrow.” He arose from the sofa and started toward
the bedroom. “Are you coming?”

“I’ll be there in a minute.
I’m going to let the dogs out to do their thing. I’ll come to bed when they’re
finished.” Billy blew me a kiss and headed for the bedroom.

I put on my coat, turned on
the porch light and opened the front door.

Athena and Thor ran past me
and down the steps as I stood on the porch and peered out into the darkness. I
pulled my coat together and hugged myself against the cold. Snow covered
everything as far as the eye could see. It was a beautiful sight to behold. A
few minutes later, the dogs were soaking wet and ready to go back inside. Their
business was finished.

“Wait here,” I said to
them. “I need to get a towel. You can’t go inside all wet. You’ll make such a
mess.”

They both whimpered, but
made no attempt to follow me.

I slipped into the bedroom
to get the towel that I had left on the floor, but to my surprise, Billy had
picked it up and hung it over the shower curtain. I snatched it down and
tiptoed out of the room. Billy was asleep.

As soon as I dried off the
dogs, they hurried back to the fireplace where it was warm. They stretched out
and made themselves at home.

I left the porch light on,
but turned off the rest of the lights in the house. The message on the computer
screen continued to pulsate in the dark.

I brushed my teeth and then
stripped out of my clothes, tossing them in a pile on a box. My search for a
T-shirt proved to be a waste of time. Wearing only panties, I slipped under the
covers, and into Billy’s arms.

When the sun came up, I
still had the covers pulled over my head. Billy had been out of bed for at
least an hour, according to my tiny foldout travel clock sitting on a box
beside the bed. Earlier, I had heard him let the dogs out as I lay half-awake.
My mind raced.

Today was Friday, the day
after Thanksgiving—the first shopping day of the Christmas season. I had things
I wanted to do, regardless of the turmoil going on in my life. If the roads
were clear enough to drive, I would go to the bank and deposit my check, then
I’d get my hair done. Shopping was on the agenda for the rest of the day. I
needed a few things for my new home, and I figured it wasn’t a bad idea to
start thinking about Christmas presents.

Christmas was a big deal
with my family. It wasn’t the presents that mattered, it was the celebrating.
It was the warm feeling of sharing a special time with the ones you love.

Reluctantly, I crawled out
of bed and jumped into the shower. The soothing water seemed to cleanse me of
the negative deeds I had encountered in the last few days. I forced myself to
think of the positive things that had happened to me. It didn’t take me long to
come to the conclusion that Billy was the man I had been searching for all my
life. Sure, he might be much older than me, but that just made him more mature
than any of the men I had dated. He was caring, sensitive, and had a feeling
for what was right,  and I knew he loved me. That’s all that mattered.

After pulling out a pair of
jeans and a T-shirt from one of the boxes that lined my bedroom wall, I decided
it was time for me to get my act together. I could empty these boxes in no time
at all—and it was about time. I dressed and began the task of putting things
where they belonged. I had to do some stuffing to get some of the clothes to
fit in the dresser, but that was all right. Soon, I would buy another dresser.
Half an hour later, the job was done, and I had a stack of empty boxes ready to
throw in the fireplace. I stripped the sheets off the bed and threw them in a
pile to be washed. I carried the boxes to the living room, tore them into
pieces and threw them into the fire. In the background, I heard the sound of a
power saw. I went back to the bedroom, gathered the pile of sheets, and headed
to the utility room. A heavy quilt had been tacked up over the doorway and the
door had been removed. I pushed the quilt aside and peeked out. Billy was in
the back yard cutting a hole in the bottom of the door.

“What are you doing?” I
asked.

“I’m cutting a pass-through
for the dogs. Then I’m going to attach a rubber flap. That way, if we’re not
here they can still come in and out of the house. I also put a deadbolt on the
door. I found one in the garage. I guess I must have bought it a while back and
just never got around to installing it. I don’t remember.” His voice changed.
“How’re you doing?”

“I’m fine, Billy. How’re
you doing?”

“I love you, Jesse.” He
gave me a warm smile.

“I know,” I said. I ran
outside and threw my arms around him. “I love you, too, Billy.”

That moment was the most
intense moment I had ever felt in my entire life. It was like waking up from a
dream. I cried as Billy held onto me.

“I know you’re scared,” he
said. “Just give us a chance, Jesse. I will never let you down. I will always
be here for you.” He gave me a little squeeze and said, “You better get back
inside. It’s cold out here.”

“Yeah, my tennis shoes are
soaking wet.”

I let go of Billy and ran
back inside, straight to the fireplace. I slipped off my wet shoes and lay them
on the hearth to dry. Returning to the utility room, I put the sheets in the
washing machine, and poured in some detergent. At the last minute, I threw my
wet socks in with the sheets. 

By the time I finished my
first cup of coffee, Billy had the door mounted and ready for use. I was
sitting at the kitchen table going over the computer printouts concerning the
Keen case, when he walked over to me.

“We’re ready to test it,”
he said.

I got up from the table,
went to the utility room, and stood by the door. 

Billy went outside, pushed
open the doggie flap and tried to get Thor to go through it. Of course, Thor
resisted, until I called his name. Then he hopped through the hole, shook off
the snow on his back, and headed for his favorite spot—the fireplace.

Athena was a different
story. Billy even tried to push her through, but all she did was stand staunch.
She wasn’t having anything to do with that hole. I bent down on my knees,
pulled the flap back and called her name.

“Athena, come on baby
girl.”

She stuck her head in the
hole, looked around, and slowly climbed through. Once inside, she jumped up and
licked at my face.

“Yuck!” I pushed her down.
“No licking.”

“Hey, that’s how they show
affection,” Billy said.

“Have you had anything to
eat?”

“I had a bowl of cereal
about an hour ago.”

“We have cereal?”

“Yes, we certainly do. I
didn’t buy any eggs. I’ve seen what you do with those,” he chuckled.

“Hey, I never said I could
cook.”

“I’m well aware of your
cooking abilities or lack thereof.”

Ignoring his remark, I
said, “I see you’ve been on the computer this morning. Have you found out
anything?”

“Yes, I have.” He walked
over to the table. “Did you notice that I’ve put a name to everyone in this
picture?” He passed the photo to me.

“How did you do that?”

“I tapped into the
sheriff’s files. Did you know there’s a picture of every employee beside their
name?”

“What, no picture of the
spouse?”

“You can’t have it all.”

“Oh, wow! Billy, I forgot
to tell you, but Roy Keen whispered something to me before he died. He said one
word—Chicky.”

“That sounds like a
nickname.”

“That’s what I thought,
too.”

“We’ll talk to the people
in the photograph and see what we can come up with. I thought we’d visit a few
of them this morning.”

“Ah, I kind of had things I
wanted to do today. I thought I’d do some shopping. There are a few things I
need around here, like more towels. Then, I was going to get my hair cut. I
haven’t...”

“Why would you do that? You
have beautiful hair. Please don’t cut it.”

“You don’t think it makes
me look plain?”

“I like your hair just like
it is.”

“Then it’s settled—no
haircut.”

“That works for me. Let’s
get back to the task at hand. I have an errand to run also so why don’t we meet
back here around two. Will that give you plenty of time to do your shopping?”

“It should.”

“Then we’ll go talk to some
of the people on this list.” He handed me a piece of paper.

“You’ve even got their
addresses. You have been a busy little bee.”

“That’s me.” He leaned down
and kissed my cheek. “Oh, I’ve already checked the roads. If you can get out to
the main road, you’ll be fine. They’re clear. VDOT has been working all night
it seems.”

“What about the weather? Is
the snow finished?”

“It quit snowing late last
night. I know, because I had to get up in the middle of the night to go to the
bathroom and I let the rug rats out.”

Athena and Thor jumped up
and stood at attention.

Billy and I looked at each
other and laughed.

“It’s not over yet,” he
said. “We’re supposed to get more. They’re calling for three to five inches on
Sunday.”

“Maybe I should call Mom
and Claire and make sure they’re all right.”

“They’re fine. I talked to
her around eight this morning.” He put his hand on my shoulder. “Cole was
there.”

“What? At
eight o’clock
in the
morning? What was he doing there?”

“Your mom said a big limb
broke off that poplar tree beside the house and landed in the driveway. Cole
was on his way to work, saw it, and stopped by. He’s such a good neighbor. He
cut it up for her and got it out of the way.”

“I guess it just so happens
that he had a chain saw in the trunk of his car, like all good neighbors?”

“A lot of the people in the
county carry chain saws. You never know what you’re going to run into on one of
these mountain roads.”

“Did you say anything to
him about us?”

He walked over to the
coffee pot, refilled his cup that had been sitting on the counter, and then
turned to me and said, “I didn’t say anything about us. I figured that was your
place.”

“I’ll take care of the
situation.”

“What about your mom? Are
you going to tell her about us?”